Nearly 500 people, including a number of sports stars and celebrities, attended the "Big Game Big Give" party in Atherton Saturday night, Feb. 6, raising what event organizers say was close to $1 million for charities.

The party also triggered Atherton's special permit process, town officials say. That means that the hosts will have to repay the town for all special services it provided, including police and traffic direction. Police say there were no complaints and no problems.

The party was at the Atherton home of venture capitalist Jillian Manus, who has hosted a number of large charity events in the past.

Among the attendees were former 49er Joe Montana, former Giant Matt Williams and Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (all honorary co-chairs), and former talk show host Jay Leno as emcee. Guests also included Keena Turner, Jim and Sarah Harbaugh and DeMarco Murray.

Michael Franti, a rapper, poet and musician who often speaks out on peace and social justice issues, provided acoustic entertainment.

Atherton Police Chief Ed Flint said that Ms. Manus worked closely with the town before the event to ensure neighbors were not inconvenienced by traffic, parking or excessive noise. Atherton police officers monitored noise levels with a decibel meter. Event organizers paid three Atherton police officers to attend and provided private security, Chief Flint said.

Ms. Manus emptied out her home to set up nine separate parties within, following a California theme. Guests entered through a giant football helmet leading to the Laguna Seca Raceway, aka the Manus driveway. Outside the door, a "Seal Rock" had live seals. Left Bank chef Roland Passot led a team of eight Bay Area chefs.

The event benefited the Stanford Cancer Institute, the Four Rings Montana Family Foundation and the Giving Back Fund, a national nonprofit umbrella organization.

Atherton's special events ordinance, updated by the council in July 2015, requires a permit for any special event "that requires the assistance of the town for traffic control, public safety services, extraordinary parking control measures, waiver of any local, state, or federal ordinance, or other mitigation measures arising from the special event."

Comments

7 people like this

Posted by Eglantine
a resident of Menlo Park: other
on Feb 8, 2016 at 12:21 pm

So if any of the rest of us would like to put on an event, where can we have guests park to be shuttled in?